Matchbox’s New Dodge Charger Pursuit is a Perfect Collectors Model

Police cars have long been a specialty of the Matchbox brand.  Over the years, Matchbox has consistently delivered not only great police car castings, but also iconic licensed liveries from famous police departments like NYPD or the California Highway Patrol.  These licensed police cars are some of Matchbox’s best models, and they do a wonderful job of appealing to kids and collectors alike.

Matchbox’s police cars have always had one problem, though.  Because of the budget constraints on mainline models, we almost never see detailed headlights or brake lights on Matchbox’s squad cars.  It’s not the end of the world, but those models do always feel like they’re missing something.  That’s where the Collectors series comes in. 

Since this is a premium model with plenty of budget available for printed detailing, it has none of the normal police car compromises.  It’s spectacular, and a perfect example of what we need more of in the Collectors line.  This is even the rare example where Matchbox’s premium wheels feel like an upgrade over their mainline counterparts!

Matchbox may label this model as a Dodge Charger Pursuit, but if you’re anything like me then you’ll immediately have noticed that this is not, in fact, a Charger Pursuit.  This is a Charger Hellcat.  I’ve never seen a police-issue Charger with those hood vents, or such huge fender flares.  That’s not too surprising, since this casting is based on the 2020 Charger SRT Hellcat from the Moving Parts line.  A minor inaccuracy perhaps, but it does seem like the kind of squad car a police department from Texas would buy. 

The Texas Department of Public Safety livery has been featured on Matchbox models before.  It’s not my favorite livery, but its white hood, roof, and trunklid certainly make good use of the extra printing budget on premium models, so I can’t fault the choice. 

This squad car’s side graphics are relatively simple, with the TDPS logo as well as a “STATE TROOPER” badge on the fender.  I do appreciate the red side marker lights on each fender, though the front ones should technically be orange, not red. 

The front of the Charger is where we really see what we’ve been missing out on with previous Matchbox police cars!  The headlights are nicely detailed, with visible DRLs and projector bulbs.  The prints are a bit pixelated, but the last Collectors series Charger didn’t have headlights at all, so I won’t complain!  There’s also a subtle little SRT badge in the grille, but the real star of the show is the red, white, and blue LEDs integrated into the bash bar.  I’ve never seen these lights detailed on any other Matchbox police car, and they add a wonderful pop of color and realism to the front of this model! 

The rear features a similar wealth of printed detailing, including a proper Texas license plate with the red TDPS badge!  I love realistic license plates, and I can’t remember ever seeing an actual state license plate design from Matchbox before (usually they just look reminiscent of a California license plate).  I can’t find any meaning in the 41020 plate number, but knowing Matchbox it’s likely a coded message of some sort. 

The lightbar design is spectacularly well done, with each of the LED elements within the lightbar being easily distinguishable.  That said, I can’t help but feel like it’s printed just a tad too small.  The lightbar on the real Charger goes nearly all the way to each side of the car, and nearly to the top of the trunk.  Perhaps they had to print it smaller to ensure printing accuracy, but at least the end result still looks good.  Also, if there was any doubt as to whether this Charger was a Hellcat, that badge on the right side of the trunk confirms it! 

This fully detailed Charger truly is one stunner of a model, which brings to mind Matchbox’s other stunningly detailed police cruiser.  In 2024, Matchbox released a Dodge Durango police cruiser with a similar level of all-over detailing and these same wheels, which I declared too premium for the Moving Parts line.  It looked fantastic, and quickly became one of my all-time favorite Matchbox police cars, despite the poor fitment of the rear doors.  Having now seen the exact same formula applied to a true premium model, I feel even more resolute in my conviction that all Matchbox police vehicles need this extra detailing.

There is one change to differentiate this new premium Charger though.  Despite being based on a mainline casting (that is itself based on a Moving Parts casting), you’ll immediately notice the extra weight as soon as you pick up this premium model.  Indeed, flipping it over reveals a new metal base, which hopefully indicates that we can expect to see this casting get more use in the premium line in the future.  After all, there’s no shortage of great recurring Matchbox police liveries that could use more detailing.  NYPD, CHP, RCMP – pick just about any acronym and it would look great on this model.  If and when they show up, you’ll see them here. 

UPDATE: We now know that the Texas State Patrol Livery will be returning at the end of 2026 on the Durango Moving Parts casting! It remains fully detailed, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. Stay tuned, because I’ll be featuring it in more detail here once it drops!